The Secret Trinity: Reign (Fae-Witch Trilogy, Book 3) (21 page)

“I’m taking a break.
”
I stood up to stretch my legs.

“You want me to come with you?”  Clay asked looking up from a book.  I slung my messenger bag ove
r my shoulder, shaking my head.

“No, I want to go say hi to my Mom,” I said, and Clay nodded with understanding as I walked away.  I rounded a long aisle of book shelves and turned the corner.  I climbed the wrought iron spiral staircase to the l
ofted room on the second level.

“Hi Mom,” I waved, sitting beneath our family portrait hanging on the wall.  I
laid
down on the cold tile floor and tucked my messenger bag beneath my head for a pillow.  I clasped my hands over my stomach and stared up at my lost family, my Fa
ther, whom I’d been told was nam
ed
Peter, and my Mother, Maggie.

Maggie held me as a newborn in her arms and Adam was held by our Father.  Even posing for this portrait you could tell how possessive Maggie was of her newborn, her knuckles almost white as she held me protectively against her chest.  Then I looked over at Clay, painted as a toddler in his family portrait, hanging next to mine, representing this generation of Royal Clansman.  It was strange to think that these two families might not have existed if Maggie and King Bryan hadn’t ignored their Soul Keeper connection.  I didn’t know why she did it, just because of tradition?  It seemed impossible to me.  She mus
t have been a much stronger woma
n than I am.  I was born with the power, but sometimes I still felt that I lacked the will and the backbone to use it fully.  I looked back at my Mother, studied the curve of her smile and the color of her hair.  I looked so much like her
,
it was startling.

“What should I do, Mom?”  I asked
her,
looking at the trinity necklace resting delicately across her collarbone.  I reached up and clutched the necklace that was now mine and rubbed my thumb over the emerald.  I trailed my eyes up the wall at the different generations of
Aira
Queens, each one in the portrait, posed with the trinity necklace while holding their daughter
s
.  What a proud tradition of
Aira
Queens I thought.  A gasp knocked the wind fro
m my lungs and I shot upright.

I grabbed my messenger bag and frantically dumped out its contents.  I shuffled through the mess, pi
cking up the aged white, trinity-
embossed book that Jeremy had found hiding in the
Aira
royal home.  I hadn’t been able to open it because it was encoded with a powerful lock-and-key spell.  I don
’t know why I didn’t think of this
before now.  I fumbled with the clasp of my necklace until it came loose.  I keele
d over as if
I had just been kicked in the stomach when the gemstone left my skin.  I hadn’t taken it off in so long
I forgot how painful that was.

I took a few deep breaths to recover and slid the pendant off of its delicate vine chain.  I put the book flat on the tile floor and moved the pedant over the embossed symbol toward the top of the hard cover.  The pedant made a loud click sound, locking into place as if a magnet were attached to it.  The emerald gemstone began to glow and my eyes grew wide when the cover flew open.  I stood up taking the book in my hands
.
I
t shook under my touch.  I moved closer to the family portraits and craned my head back to look
up
at her.  Inside the first page was a hand written note in perfect penmanship, from Queen Danu herse
lf.

Congratulations, if you are reading this letter it means you are next in line to the
Aira
throne and your Mother has gifted you this beautiful trinity necklace.  This necklace was given to me as a gift by our
Eartha
King in celebration of the birth of my daughter, and I can think of no better way to honor his kind gesture of unity between our
Clans than to create this dia
ry to be passed dow
n through the generations of
future
Aira
Queens.  You will find that it is challenging to be an
Aira
Queen.  Not only is it difficult as a woman to poss
ess
more power in our
Aira
blood than our male counterparts, but you will soon find that as an
Aira
Queen
,
our natural compassion has us facing many hardships and unsavory decisions f
or our Kingdom.  It is a
sacrifice to have the lives of others in your hands, but know this, we are all connected by blood and soul, and if we can be strong together, our line will
always reign as Queen.  This d
i
a
ry is for us.  Write in it your wisdom, your thoughts, and your fears, and know that we will always be with you.

I couldn’t believe it.  I read the passage again, but I still couldn’t believe it.  My heart was pounding a mile a minute.  I slowly turned the page and began to read.  The next passages were about the uprising with the
Famorii
and Queen Danu’s choice to declare war.  After that, it was her daughter, Helen, explaining Queen Danu’s death and her soul passing through the trinity necklace, making it the marker for when o
ur prophet was born.  She wrote
about her plans to keep their new city a secret from the outside world in order to protect their Kingdom from the
Famorii
,
until the Trinity
Fae
came to us.  Then, Helen went into detail about her last moments with her Mother and the prophecy.

Her eyes began to glow the most brill
iant green I had ever seen when
she took my hand and showed me her final vision.  The light died behind her eyes and the emerald of our trinity pierced the sky like a beam of fire.  The necklace is the key to much more than our precious
thoughts now.  Keep it safe at any cost.
The Trinity will come to us.  Until then, I see great sacrifice in our future.  My Mother took her last breath tonight but her legacy will live on
forev
-

The last letters were smudged away by tears and I bit my lip holding back my own.  The next page Helen went into more detail about the vision Queen Danu projected into her mind and the Trinity’s wielding of all the power of
the stars in the sky.  I
didn’t quite understand how I was supposed to accomplish that.  I let out a shaky breath, bracing myself.  I couldn’t wait to read it all.  I had to know if she wrote a passage.  I flipped to the last section until I saw Maggi
e Brennan scrolled at the top.

Peter and I found out
today that
we’re expect
ing our second child
, and Paul is thrilled.  He cannot wait to be a big brother.  It’s funny because we weren’t
even trying.  It must be a sign
because we are having a girl.  At least I think it’s a girl, the future
Aira
Queen.  I know it’s too soon to tell, but she’s special, I can just feel it.  I have visions of her, and I always trust my visions as Queen Danu had.  When I trace her future I can see that she looks just like me, except for one very important detail.  Peter says I’m just having wonky dreams again, but he is unaware that I know better of it.  Only time and sparkling green eyes will tell.  I think I’ll name her Aria because if I am right about my visions, I’m afraid that this precious little girl’s life will be just like mine, a drama
set to music.

I was laughi
ng and crying all at once.  My M
other had the
tracing
gift and her visions were powerful enough to see my future?  King Bryan told me that I was the only one with this gift since Queen Danu, which means he didn’t know about her
gift or he was
keeping secrets too.  I was craving more and I quickly flipped the page, afraid and e
xcited to read the last entry.

I’m crying.  I can’t stop crying today! 
I let Bryan kiss me. 
I am so weak when he looks at me with those deep black diamonds.  The moment I answered my door and I saw the passion burning behind them, I knew I should have kicked him out right then.  Because when he looks at me like that our lips always find e
ach other.  It’s not his fault.  H
e t
o
o trusts my visions completely.  He knows his role in our destiny, but sometimes it’s still easy to lose our way.  I know it’s wrong, a stolen kiss from time-to-time.  I know it’s not fair to Peter or Aileen who love us without question, even though we can’t in the same way.  It’s hard to be around Bryan and rule beside him when I wish we could be together, ruling together with our own family.  He
confuses me, and the plans we have set
,
with those lips.  How do you trust your visions when it means not being with your Soul Keeper?  But I listened to my heart and I know I have made the right choice.  Bryan and I will have each other only in heaven and I have come to terms with this, my fate.   I always knew I would be the one to birth the Trinity
Fae
of our pure
Aira
blood, and if this is the sacrifice I have to make for our prophet to be born, so be it.  Sometimes I wish I could forget him, but then I realize that a life of pain with him connected to me is so much better than a life without knowing his soul.  Once Aria is
born we will have to leave
Draíochta
.  It is for the best.  U
ntil she can return as Queen, it won’t be safe for her here
,
so young and fragile.  I fear King Thaddeus will discover the location of our Kingdo
m if we stay.  She’s the one who
will stop the
Famorii
and their unlawful murder of our kind, ending this war for good, honoring our fair Queen Danu.  Aria’s been growing more powerful, I can feel it!  Last week I was
awa
ken
ed
from a dream to find that my swollen stomach was glowing like a full moon, and I knew who she was, that my vision was coming true.  Earlier that day Aileen and her youngest, Clay, came to visit.  His darling blue eyes stared at my stomach in awe.  He pressed his little ear against me, hugging my tummy while he listened to her heartbeat, and I could feel her power come to life.  When it was time to leave, he threw a tantrum refusing to let go.  It was so sweet.  I saw something in Clay’s young eyes that reminded me of his Father.  I pray this is our gift from the heavens for our sacrifice, and that my Aria won’t have to bear my fate.  She will be free to love him and
in turn she will free us all.

The book slipped through my fingers dropping loudly to the floor.  I collapsed to my knees so hard I felt the sting, an
d then a pain spread through me
stabbing my i
ntestine.
I wanted to scream.  She knew.  My Mother knew all that she was giving up, even her life, trusting in he
r visions from the start.  What was it that she saw?  How was
I supposed to stop the
Famorii
?  I began to hyperventilate and my sight blurred.  I heard thunderous steps clamoring up the iron staircase.  Clay dropped to his knees in front of me inspecting me for injury.

“Ari, ar
e you hurt?!”  I nodded numbly,
unable to speak.

“Where are you hurt? 
What happened?!”
  Clay asked, starting to freak ou
t as he looked me over again
finding no sign of
blood.  I pointed to the book at
my side and Clay’s forehead creased as he looked at me with
confusion.  I picked up the dia
ry
,
flipped to the last page
,
and set it on his lap.  As he read it, I wrapped my arms around my stomach rocking back and forth,
willing the pain away.  I felt Clay’s heart rate pick-up as his eyes drifte
d over the lines in disbelief.

He looked up at me, completely stunned, “Is this real?”  He asked and I nodded. 

“But my F
ather never told me...
he said only Queen Danu...he knew,” Clay dropped the book and pulled m
e to his lap hugging me tight.

“It’s not our fault Ari, it’s not.  They chose their path and accepted it with open arms,” Clay reassured me.

“I wonder how much Maggie saw of o
ur future.
”  Clay said
this
rhetorically and I shook my head in disbelief to afraid to tell him our future would be cut short.

“You know what’s weird?  I know I was only two, but reading that I feel like I remember it.  You were like a magnet and when I got closer I could
see your glow get brighter, but
no
one
else seemed to notice.  I must have thought I was a magician and they we
re taking away my star illusion,”
Clay sa
id, trying to lighten the mood.